Manistee freshman Annie Fuller clears the bar in the high jump at the Benzie Central Invite on Thursday. She went on to win the event. (Dylan Savela/News Advocate)

BENZONIA — Manistee went into the Benzie Central Invite Thursday a bit shorthanded, but still managed to come away with a number of top spots.

The Manistee girls placed fourth of eight teams with 76 total points while host Benzie won the event with 197.5. The Chippewa boys placed sixth with 65 points as the Huskies topped the field with 141.

“It was pretty rough, actually,” Manistee girls coach Sam Joseph said of both the weather and competing shorthanded due to injuries. “We’ve got some kids hurting. It’s really that time of year where you’ve got some cramps, you’ve got some injuries kicking in.

“A lot of our key runners didn’t compete in the events they usually would, so our team scores will probably be misleading. We just weren’t fully represented today.

“But, what we did compete in, we competed in very well,” he added. “You look at the guys, and they still ran to four firsts. We’re still competing where we can, but we’ve just got to get healthy again.”

For the Chippewa boys, Evan Slawinski won the 100-meter dash (11.39), Nick Williams won the 400 (52.66) and Tyler Maiville won the 300-meter hurdles (42.26). The 800-meter relay team of Slawinski, Maiville, Scott Wethy and Williams also placed first (1:38.32).

Manistee’s Andre Allen placed third in the long jump with a leap of 17-foot-9 while the 1,600-meter relay team of Maiville, Drew Sheffield, Wethy and Williams placed third as well (3:42.00).

Freshman Annie Fuller paced the Chippewa girls with a first-place leap of 5-0 in the high jump while also placing second in the 400 (1:00.91) and third in the 800 (2:28.24).

Manistee’s Jessica Gustad took second in the 300-meter hurdles (53.35) and third in the 100-meter dash (13.65) while Sarah Chandler placed third in the 400 (1:03.97) and was part of the third-place 800-meter relay squad (1:59.78) with teammates No’el Solis, Courtney Stefanski and Rebecca Barry.

Visit the photo gallery to see more photos from the Benzie Central Invite.